A Novel Approach to Robotic Cardiac Surgery Using Haptics and Vision

摘要

Abstract Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death in the United States and also a major disease nationwide. Over 700,000 coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures are performed annually all around the world, of which 350,000 are performed in the United States. The use of mechanical stabilizers to isolate and immobilize the surface region of the heart is not without its limitations such as hemodynamic deterioration, and arrythmia induction requiring inotropic support. Consequently, the use of mechanical stabilizers leads to a poor immobilization of the surgical field in spite of significant forces of traction and retraction used with these devices. The primary goal of this research is to develop effective haptic (sense of touch) and visual servoing methods with the long-term goal of eliminating the need for mechanical stabilizers and extracorporeal support for CABG procedures. We present in this paper the results from our initial work in the area of tracking a deformable membrane using vision and providing haptic feedback to the user, based on the visual information through the vision hardware and the material properties of the membrane. In our first experiment, we track the deformation of a rubber membrane in real-time through stereovision while providing haptic feedback to the user interacting with the reconstructed membrane through the PHANToM haptic device. In the second experiment, we verify the ability of our vision system to track a point on a surface undergoing a complex 3D motion.